1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic following travel system wherein, among a plurality of queued vehicles, a leading vehicle positioned at the front is operated by an operator, and the following vehicles positioned behind the leading vehicle automatically follow the leading vehicle so as to travel in a procession.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 11-153106, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is commonly known, systems have been proposed wherein small electric vehicles are used in common by a plurality of users in a defined region, and thereby, efficient use of the vehicles is achieved, and by means of this, problems such as congestion and insufficient space are relieved, and a savings in resources and energy, as well as an improvement in environmental contamination, are achieved.
In other words, dedicated parking, termed ports, is established at a number of places within a limited region, and users are able to freely borrow vehicles from these ports, and furthermore, after the use of the vehicles, the vehicles may be returned to the ports. By means of this, users are able to employ the vehicles only when they are required. Furthermore, if there are large number of ports, it will not be necessary to search for parking space or to park along the side of the road, and it is thus possible to alleviate congestion.
However, in such a system, as a result of the locations at which the ports are established or the like, there are concerns that vehicles may become concentrated at some ports, while at other ports, vehicles will become insufficiently available.
Techniques have been proposed for moving a plurality of vehicles efficiently between ports so as to easily remedy this imbalance of vehicles existing between ports (for example, in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication, No. Hei 5-170008). In this technique, among a plurality of queued vehicles, only the leading vehicle, which is positioned at the front, is manually operated by an operator, and the operation of the following vehicles is automatically controlled based on data relating to the amount of driving operation of the leading vehicle which is transmitted from the leading vehicle. By means of this, driving is controlled so that the following vehicles trace the same track as the leading vehicle, and as a result, a state is realized in which a series of vehicles travel in such a manner as to form a procession with the leading vehicle in the front (processional travel). At this time, because the operation of the following vehicles is automatically controlled, unmanned operation is possible, and it is possible to reduce the number of humans involved.
However, because following vehicles are driven in an unmanned state while traveling in a procession, emergency measures cannot be immediately taken if an accident occurs in the following vehicles.